Ohm's Law

[Knowl Paine]

What is the source of Impedance in the human body? Where does the resistance come from?

 

Ohm's Law states: that the current through a conductor between two points is directly proportional to the potential difference across the two points. Introducing the constant of proportionality, the resistance, one arrives at the usual mathematical equation that describes this relationship

im·ped·ance

noun
1. Electricity . the total opposition to alternating current by an electric circuit, equal to the square root of the sum of the squares of the resistance and reactance of the circuit and usually expressed in ohms. Symbol:  Z

2. Also called mechanical impedance. Physics . the ratio of the force on a system undergoing simple harmonic motion to the velocity of the particles in the system.

3. something that impedes;  an obstacle or hindrance.

 

I can understand where positive energy comes from, or how it is created; but where does the ground come from, for negative energy?

[PeterCanessa Oh]

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Knowl Paine wrote:

Where does the resistance come from?

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Sansbury's

[Madelaine McMasters]

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Knowl Paine wrote:

What is the source of Impedance in the human body? Where does the resistance come from?

 

Ohm's Law

states: that the current through a conductor between two points is directly proportional to the potential difference across the two points. Introducing the constant of proportionality, the resistance, one arrives at the usual mathematical equation that describes this relationship

 

 

im·ped·ance

 

noun

1. Electricity . the total opposition to alternating current by an electric circuit, equal to the square root of the sum of the squares of the resistance and reactance of the circuit and usually expressed in ohms. Symbol:  Z

2. Also called mechanical impedance. Physics . the ratio of the force on a system undergoing simple harmonic motion to the velocity of the particles in the system.

3. something that impedes;  an obstacle or hindrance.

 

I can understand where positive energy comes from, or how it is created; but where does the

ground

come from, for negative energy?

---

I'm gonna oversimply greatly here, Knowl, but I hope you get the general drift.

The resistance comes from the chemical composition of the body, which one might roughly consider as a bag of salt water overall. If you look at smaller structures, you'll find different impedances. Bone has higher impedance than blood, as it contains less water and salts. Skin, which is dry on the outside, has a much higher impedance than internal organs. Resistance to the flow of electricity is dependent on the chemical makeup of the thing. Metals have electrons they easily share, other elements do not. When you introduce water, which is a solvent for a great many other chemicals, you can get ions (charged atoms), which also allow the transport of energy, although not as quickly as by trading tiny, fast, electrons.

As for the positive and negative potentials, they are found everywhere within the body, formed by ion exchange, much like that in batteries (or better yet, fuel cells). Nerves conduct electrical impulses via ion-exchange (typical human nerve conduction velocity is about 110 mph). This is different than the way wires conduct electricity, which is through the direct flow of electrons. Most of the conduction in your body is done via a cascade of cellular charge/discharge cycles, powered by the food you eat via a nifty chemical called ATP. Chemical energy extracted from the decomposition of nutrient molecules (think sugar) is stored in ATP for ready use by cells when needed.

The impedance of individual cells varies with their electrochemical state, as does the potential difference across their cell walls. As chemical reactions take place inside your body's cells, the potentials measured across the cell surface will change. It's a bit like having a battery in the cell and moving the probes around the inside to change the potentials you measure on the outside. One end of a cell can be more positive than the other one instant, and more negative the next.

You don't feel these potentials when touching someone because they are very small (less than a volt) and the cells are not all lined up like a stack of batteries, they're jumbled all about and if you stick two meter probes into a body almost anywhere, you get the average of these many cell potentials arranged willy nilly, producing almost no signal.

But it is ALMOST no signal. We can and do measure collective voltage effects of large bunches of cells in the body when we take your ECG (heart), EEG (brain) or EMG (muscles). These signals are vanishingly small (millivolts to microvolts). And we must be very careful when trying to measure these signals from the outside of your body because there is a lot of intervening muscle, fat and worst of all, dry skin. That's why ECG electrodes contain wet salty gels, to hydrate your skin and provide a good salt-water bridge to your wet inner self.

The term "ground" doesn't really apply inside a body. There are simply potential differences, whether across the tiny dimensions of a molecule, a cell, an organ or the entire body. The term "ground" comes from the power industry, where the power generation grid's "common" point is actually connected to the Earth itself to prevent dangerous voltages from appearing on things we might touch. In your home, the "neutral" wire is connected to your home's plumbing (which goes into the ground) as a safety precaution. Absent such redundant ground connections throughout the power system, it would be possible for electrostatic charge to build up on the power wiring to the point that lightning bolts would fly from the outlets in search of a return path, which might be you. (This would happen if power lines were struck by lightning). By tying at least one part of the power generation grid to ground, the highest potentials you would find anywhere on the grid are those there by design (such as 120V, 240V, etc).

This is also why lightning rods are connected to ground, to provide a return path for lightning strikes, so they don't burn through your roof and home (which are not nearly as conductive as the lightning rod's ground wire, but are conductive enough to damaging currents from the lightning bolt).

We carry the term "ground" into other situations to refer to whatever part of the entire system we are going to reference everything to. If you jabbed two voltmeter probes into your arm, you'd be forgiven for calling the black probe "ground". Curiously if you tried that, any measurement you got would probably be more a reflection of the electrochemistry between the metal of the probe tips and your wet insides than of anything actually happening in your arm (like involuntary muscle contraction (and the signals that creates) because of the pain of being stabbed by meter probes ;-).

If you ever did a copper/zinc/lemon experiment when young, you know that if the meter probes are not exactly the same metal compositon, you will make a battery if you stick them into something even slightly acidic or alkaline (blood is very slightly alkaline).

Finally, if we talk about the body as a whole, you do want to avoid injecting large currents through it, which can cause injury or death. The heart doesn't like being electrically upset (nor does the brain), so passing large currents through the heart (as might happen if you grasp two power wires with your hands, provding a path right through the chest) is not a good idea. Curiously, the electrochemical processes that make everything work in your body move much slower than the speed of light, so you can actually pass large alternating currents through your body if the frequency of alternation is much, much faster than the response time of cells in your body. This is why high power radio technicians can accidentally receive nasty burns on their hands without suffering a heart attack while power company lineman receiving the same shock may go into cardiac arrest. Your heart can respond to a current that jiggles 60 times a second, but not to one that jiggles 60 million times a second. But just like the roof of your house bursting into flame, the conduction of electricity generates heat, sometimes enough to burn.

Okay, that's the (stream of consciousness) nickel tour. The full tour will require a few years of engineering school, which will take you out of the dating scene for longer than you may wish ;-)

 

[ROB34466IIIa]

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Madelaine McMasters wrote:

 

... , which will take you out of the dating scene for longer than you may wish ;-)

---

 

*whisper* You already had me at 'oversimplify' .... :robotembarrassed:

[PeterCanessa Oh]

Tl;dr, I skipped from:

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Madelaine McMasters wrote:

... the body, which one might roughly consider as a bag of salt water overall...

---

To:

---

... jiggles 60 times a second...

 

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Now I don't know whether to be offended or excited ^^

[JeanneAnne]

---

Knowl Paine wrote:

What is the source of Impedance in the human body? Where does the resistance come from?

 

Ohm's Law

states: that the current through a conductor between two points is directly proportional to the potential difference across the two points. Introducing the constant of proportionality, the resistance, one arrives at the usual mathematical equation that describes this relationship

 

 

im·ped·ance

 

noun

1. Electricity . the total opposition to alternating current by an electric circuit, equal to the square root of the sum of the squares of the resistance and reactance of the circuit and usually expressed in ohms. Symbol:  Z

2. Also called mechanical impedance. Physics . the ratio of the force on a system undergoing simple harmonic motion to the velocity of the particles in the system.

3. something that impedes;  an obstacle or hindrance.

 

I can understand where positive energy comes from, or how it is created; but where does the

ground

come from, for negative energy?

---

Mostly from lipids & other nonpolar compounds that inhibit or impede the flow of ions.

Jeanne

[Perrie Juran]

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PeterCanessa Oh wrote:

Tl;dr, I skipped from:

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Madelaine McMasters wrote:

... the body, which one might roughly consider as a bag of salt water overall...

---

To:

---

... jiggles 60 times a second...

 

---

Now I don't know whether to be offended or excited ^^

 

 

---

I stopped when I got to this line:

"That's why ECG electrodes contain wet salty gels, to hydrate your skin and provide a good salt-water bridge to your wet inner self."

way to sexual if you ask me.

[Madelaine McMasters]

---

PeterCanessa Oh wrote:

Tl;dr, I skipped from:

---

Madelaine McMasters wrote:

... the body, which one might roughly consider as a bag of salt water overall...

---

To:

---

... jiggles 60 times a second...

 

---

Now I don't know whether to be offended or excited ^^

 

 

---

Both?

[PudgyPaddy]

Impedance speaks.

Johnson-Nyquist noise (the sobriquet for the statistical, physical derivation of the noise is the fluctuation/dissipation theorem) is where generalized impedance or generalized susceptibility is used in characterization the medium. It is the electronic noise generated by the thermal agitation of the charge carriers, usually electrons but not always, inside a conductor at equilibrium; occurring regardless of any applied voltage.

 

[Knowl Paine]

11 paragraphs is simplified?

Just kidding, thank you for taking the time to reply. I've read it 3 times.


I realize that the impedance of a cell does vary with the cells electro-chemical state.

Could the source of the impedance be simplified as to be found in the source elements in the body?

Chemicals are elements. Humans might be better identified as electro-elemental.  

What does the body need; what does the brain need? Let us consider an stable element like Gold. Does the Human brain have synapses (receivers) for Gold?

Tiny, tiny , tiny little speck of Gold floating happily in your body, arrives at the Brain, jumps across to the synapse, and fits perfectly, snuggled into a node on the synapse, that has been in the brain since birth. Then.... something happens, science only knows.

How about Silver?

What is the brain's response when these synapses are activated / stimulated?

 

You do not have to answer any of these questions directly. I'm just presenting the questions. I do have a larger continuing theory, but getting into some of the other subjects would take us way off topic. 

[JeanneAnne]

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Knowl Paine wrote:

11 paragraphs is simplified?

 

Just kidding, thank you for taking the time to reply. I've read it 3 times.

 

 

I realize that the impedance of a cell does vary with the cells electro-chemical state.

Could the source of the impedance be simplified as to be found in the source elements in the body?

 

Chemicals are elements. Humans might be better identified as electro-elemental.  

 

What does the body need; what does the brain need? Let us consider an stable element like Gold. Does the Human brain have synapses (receivers) for Gold?

 

Tiny, tiny , tiny little speck of Gold floating happily in your body, arrives at the Brain, jumps across to the synapse, and fits perfectly, snuggled into a node on the synapse, that has been in the brain since birth. Then.... something happens, science only knows.

 

How about Silver?

 

What is the brain's response when these synapses are activated / stimulated?

 

You do not have to answer any of these questions directly. I'm just presenting the questions. I do have a larger continuing theory, but getting into some of the other subjects would take us way off topic. 

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Most chemicals are compounds, composed of elements but with their own properties due to bonding dynamics. I think that its more accurate to characterize cells & organisms as organic redox systems than as "electro-elemental" entities.

Mostuv the elements associated with life are of low atomic mass, for a variety of reasons. Au & Ag arent neurotransmitters.

Do you know any biology or biochemistry? Are your questions sincere or are you going to be pushing some bogus agenda? I'd like to know, so I'll know whether to respond in good faith or blow you off as a flake. Thanks!

Jeanne

[Knowl Paine]

I suspect that the medium is me or another person.

I have witnessed carriers of thermal agitation in SL.

The noise was generated electronically by a Resident.

There was an measureable effect. A change in the electro-chemical response from effected Residents.

In this instance, the source of the Impedance was environmental.

 

Your comment made me think about :

"Want for nothing"  - "With all your Heart"

Buddha

 

and then, how things will occur regardless of any applied voltage, and we are electrical, thoughts are voltage.

[Madelaine McMasters]

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Knowl Paine wrote:

11 paragraphs is simplified?

 

Just kidding, thank you for taking the time to reply. I've read it 3 times.

 

 

I realize that the impedance of a cell does vary with the cells electro-chemical state.

Could the source of the impedance be simplified as to be found in the source elements in the body?

 

Chemicals are elements. Humans might be better identified as electro-elemental.  

 

What does the body need; what does the brain need? Let us consider an stable element like Gold. Does the Human brain have synapses (receivers) for Gold?

 

Tiny, tiny , tiny little speck of Gold floating happily in your body, arrives at the Brain, jumps across to the synapse, and fits perfectly, snuggled into a node on the synapse, that has been in the brain since birth. Then.... something happens, science only knows.

 

How about Silver?

 

What is the brain's response when these synapses are activated / stimulated?

 

You do not have to answer any of these questions directly. I'm just presenting the questions. I do have a larger continuing theory, but getting into some of the other subjects would take us way off topic. 

---

Well, it was 11 paragraphs that spanned a lot more than you were asking, so it was oversimplified in the sense that I simplified over a vast area ;-)

As Jeanne says elsewhere, you don't find bare elements at work in our biological machinery. We are made of complex molecules that store, transform, and transmit energy. Unlike the sorts of electronic things we make, which perform their "magic" by transporting only electrons or electromagnetic fields over large distances (transistors are just now approaching the size of a typical molecular machine), biology is all about using electricity on a molecular scale to power actual physical machinery. These machines are exquisite...

Gold, silver and other metals aren't found much in biochemistry because they don't join up in the sorts of molecular engines and energy storage structures that biology needs to work. We are made mostly of CHNOPS (carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and sulfur). There are other elements (20 or so) used in smaller amounts for specialized purposes. The basic six elements are all lightweight (P is heaviest at 31, your Gold is 197) and make useful connections with each other.

Man made electronic devices are vastly faster than our molecular machinery because they use highly conductive metals which are rich in easy to accelerate free electrons. As a result, signals in electronic devices move at nearly the speed of light, compared to that 110 mph of nerve impulses, which have to crank around large molecules. But what our biological machines lack in speed, they make up for in density and efficiency.

And that biological machinery is constantly rewiring and rebuilding itself. We've yet to master that in our man made devices, as we still don't know how to rearrange molecules as deftly as nature.

The brain's reponses to stimulation is still largely a mystery to us. We have theories of behavior at the largest scale (psychology) and at the smallest scale (neurophysics) and at levels in between, but we're a long way from figuring it all out.

The brain has a mind of its own.

;-)

[Madelaine McMasters]

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JeanneAnne wrote:

---

Knowl Paine wrote:

What is the source of Impedance in the human body? Where does the resistance come from?

 

Ohm's Law

states: that the current through a conductor between two points is directly proportional to the potential difference across the two points. Introducing the constant of proportionality, the resistance, one arrives at the usual mathematical equation that describes this relationship

 

 

im·ped·ance

 

noun

1. Electricity . the total opposition to alternating current by an electric circuit, equal to the square root of the sum of the squares of the resistance and reactance of the circuit and usually expressed in ohms. Symbol:  Z

2. Also called mechanical impedance. Physics . the ratio of the force on a system undergoing simple harmonic motion to the velocity of the particles in the system.

3. something that impedes;  an obstacle or hindrance.

 

I can understand where positive energy comes from, or how it is created; but where does the

ground

come from, for negative energy?

---

Mostly from lipids & other nonpolar compounds that inhibit or impede the flow of ions.

Jeanne

---

Yep, those lipids are the fats, which like transformer oil, aren't as conductive as the the polar molecules and ions that drift about in water. Ever see one of those body fat bathroom scales (which are terribly inaccurate)? They try to determine your fat/muscle ratio by measuring the conductivity of the lower half of your body, through your feet. If you are heavy and not very conductive, the scale presumes you are a big ball of fat. If you are light and conductive, it presumes you're lean and fit.

But the state of your feet makes a big difference. If you rub an oily skin cream on your feet before stepping on the scale, the impedance of the foot/scale interface will be high and it's gonna think you are fat. If you soak your feet in salt water before standing on the scale, you'll make a good, low impedance connection and it will think you are thin. It's important to know things like this so you can convince your hubby (okay, ex hubby) to soothe his dry feet with skin cream before getting on the scale, while you (okay, me) soak your feet in epsom salts.

Keeping your composure during the discussion that follows the weigh-in is another matter altogether.

[Ceka Cianci]

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Knowl Paine wrote:

What is the source of Impedance in the human body? Where does the resistance come from?

I can understand where positive energy comes from, or how it is created; but where does the

ground

come from, for negative energy?

---

 

inside the human body it will depend on the lack of conductive material in the moisture..

on the outside it is pretty much the same but with higher resistance...

the dryer we are the more resistant we are..

ground is more like making me part of the line in the path..not really a resistance needed unless the ground side is too small and i have to hold some of the load..

remove the ground and bang..unless i am tied to something that will blend with me and tie me to the charge building..

i become like a capacitor which could be like standing in a puddle that is charged..this is why you never want to touch someone being electrocuted..

 

if you watch the green mile where they use the wet sponge on the persons head sitting in the electric chair they are about to electrocute..and the one man that didn't wet the sponge on the other man they electrocuted..

that will show you a pretty good idea of where our resistance is..

basically..the thing we do not want to be when it comes to electricity..is a load with no exit..

if there were a big enough ground wire in the hand of the man in the chair..he would have been part of the path and lived..sponge or no sponge..

make him the end of the line and tied down with no way to be blasted from it and his resistance is tested and it will determine how dry he is and what type of moisture was used as to how good his resistance will be..not counting all the other factors like fillings in the teeth and the zillions of other things that can be added..

i hope i came close..i'm just waking up and still groggy lol

here is a good test..stick the two leads of a 9 volt battery on your arm and see what happens..if it's dry then nothing..nothing..then lick it and see what happens lol

 

 

 

[Knowl Paine]

Insincerity, is probably one of the things I despise the most. It is a root on the tree of corruption.

I am well aware that chemicals are compounds of elements.

The Body synthesizes source elements, when the elements are not present in the body.

The Brain does have synapses that can receive Gold, Silver, Heroin, cocaine, etc. Label them however you wish. 

Why you wish to dismiss this, eludes me.

The entire Tobacco settlement in the US was about the Companies adulterating the cigarettes so that the synapse receiver in the brain would be reshaped, and only accept that Companies nicotine shaped molecule. Those "scientist" brought new meaning to Plasticity in the human brain.

I think that we are having two conversations here. I'm not asking people to quote text books. Being right or wrong is not measured by spelling or proper use of terminology. This is an exercise in expanding consciousness.

We can have it all in one, or we can discuss the many micro processes occurring. Once we get down to the root, the real nitty gritty, we find an electron revolving around a proton and neutron.

There is no punch line.

I care about people, I guess that could be viewed as an agenda.

If I am in error, or off-base, I prefer to be corrected. I want to move forward in Life, not backwards. :smileyhappy:

If there is a game being played; I'm not in charge. 

 

[Knowl Paine]

Radioactive decay from silver particles force viruses that are hiding in the spinal fluid, out of remission.

The virus detected an antibody from an inoculation, and the virus was aware that the immune system cannot enter the spinal fluid, and the virus migrated into the spine.

The elements can, and do interplay with other processes.

I agree that the elements are in Trace Amounts. You have gold in your body.

If a person lacks an element, they will not experience the effects.

 

I agree that much is left to be discovered about the brain. I'm just one person, asking questions.

I'm pretty sure that Encyclopedia Britannica, won't publish this.

 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Creating this thread caused an effect. In a sense, it is a form of Impedance. The Sun, wind, rain and ice would all effect any sensitive science experiment.

Research at Cern, suggest that the outcome of Cern's experiments can be influenced by the scientist's own expectations.

Why oh why does LL let these things happen!  Impedance may be the answer.

 

 

 

 

[Parhelion Palou]

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Madelaine McMasters wrote:

But the state of your feet makes a big difference. If you rub an oily skin cream on your feet before stepping on the scale, the impedance of the foot/scale interface will be high and it's gonna think you are fat. If you soak your feet in salt water before standing on the scale, you'll make a good, low impedance connection and it will think you are thin. It's important to know things like this so you can convince your hubby (okay, ex hubby) to soothe his dry feet with skin cream before getting on the scale, while you (okay, me) soak your feet in epsom salts.

Keeping your composure during the discussion that follows the weigh-in is another matter altogether.

---

What a wicked & wonderful idea! If only I had that type of scale (and someone to try it on). Did you try to convince ex-hubby that the results indicated a fat build-up in the head?

I thought the 11 paragraph explanation was quite clear, btw.

 

[Phil Deakins]

Maddy's reply was much too simplified - in that yoiu look at the length of it and skip to the next post

You asked where the 'ground' comes from. It's not that it comes from anywhere. The 'ground' is literally the gound - the earth itself. Hence we have earth wires in out mains cables, and we 'earth' electrical things. We connect them to the earth/ground/planet, which effectively has zero potential.

It's the 'potential difference' that matters - the difference in potential between one point and another. Current can't flow between two points that have the same potential. So you can hang on a high voltage cable with impunity as long as you don't also touch something with a much lower potential - the ground or something connected to the ground, such as a pylon that holds the cable up. An example follows...

A long long time ago, in a land far far away (Germany, actually), I was in the army and I had a group in which I was the singer. We sometimes played in a cellar that had a stone floor which was literally on the ground/earth. When singing, my lips would sometimes touch the mic and, once in a while, I'd get very mild shock but nothing to bother about. One night a lad wanted to sing, so I let him. During his song he suddenly let go of the mic and it hit the floor. He said he'd got a shock from it. I said it's nothing to bother about and I held the metal part to show him (the body was plastic and the end was metal). So he started again and the same thing happened. To demonstrate that it really was nothing to bother about, I got hold of the metal part and then I got hold of him. At that moment we both got mains power through us. He'd been right.

The difference was that I had shoes on and didn't touch the ground with my body, but he was bare-footed and made a direct connection from the mains to the ground. My shoes resisted the flow of current through me to the ground, but when I touched him and the mic simultaneously, current was able to flow directly to the ground via me and him. It turned out that the mains was wired wrongly and wasn't grounded as it should have been.

[Madelaine McMasters]

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Phil Deakins wrote:

Maddy's reply was much too simplified - in that yoiu look at the length of it and skip to the next post

It's the 'potential difference' that matters - the difference in potential between one point and another. Current can't flow between two points that have the same potential. So you can hang on a high voltage cable with impunity as long as you don't also touch something with a much lower potential - the ground or something connected to the ground, such as a pylon that holds the cable up. An example follows...

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I'll keep this shorter!

[Phil Deakins]

That's some job he has! And there's another guy on the other side.

[Madelaine McMasters]

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Phil Deakins wrote:

That's some job he has! And there's another guy on the other side.

---

Yep! And notice that he must equalize potential between the power line and the helicopter with that li'l probe. The power line is moving up and down by maybe half a million volts, 60 times a second. The helicopter isn't. That's because the helicopter has a "displacement capacitance" which couples it to the universe at large, which on average isn't moving up and down like the power line. The arc you see jump from the powerline to the probe is carrying the current required to swing the helicopter up and down by the same voltage. The lineman doesn't want that current flowing through him, so he gives it a lower resistance path (the probe and cable).

Our atmosphere has quite a bit of charge floating around in it (hence lightning).  On average, from ground to the edge of space, the electric field increases about 100V per meter. We don't feel this because the impedance of air is extremely high, so currents (which is what we sense) are vanishingly small, but a sensitive enough instrument can easily detect this potential gradient.

I remember getting my first oscilloscope and watching the trace wander up and down as the scope probe, dangling over the edge of the bench, swung back and forth. I then noticed that the trace wiggled a bit when I tapped my foot on the ground several feet away and moved even more when I ran my hands over my skirt, trying to pad away the static electricity that made it cling to my legs. That's when it dawned on me that the static electricity on our clothing creates electric fields no different than the radio station miles away.

We all wander cluelessly through a muddle of electric fields, ranging from the slowly changing static on our clothes (excepting those pesky shocks) , all the way up in frequency until we can start to see it with our eyes (infrared). We are then blessed with the ability to glimpse just a narrow range of electric field frequencies (red through violet) before nature wanders off into the ultraviolet, leaving us blind once again.

It was my frustration over not being able to see all these things around me that propelled me into science.

[Phil Deakins]

I was never propelled into science, which is fortunate because I'd have been useless - my memory is that bad. But I did have "my first scope" It's the only one I owned and I got it for checking for faulty memory chips in situ.

However, I was propelled into buying and reading science books. Having a bad memory is very good for that, because I don't remember very much and I can read them again after a while, almost as though they are new to me It's the same with TV programmes. It doesn't take very long before I can watch the same enjoyable programme again without knowing the ending. I usually know that I've seen it before, but I don't remember the whole story and how it ends. It's brilliant

Now... It's been obvious that you know a lot of scientific stuff, and now you've said that are in science. I am very interested to know what you do but telling me would sidetrack the thread and would probably not be appropriate. But if you would like to tell my in a PM, I'd be very interested.

[Madelaine McMasters]

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Phil Deakins wrote:

Having a bad memory is very good for that, because I don't remember very much and I can read them again after a while, almost as though they are new to me

It's the same with TV programmes. It doesn't take very long before I can watch the same enjoyable programme again without knowing the ending. I usually know that I've seen it before, but I don't remember the whole story and how it ends. It's brilliant

---

My Mom is similarly afflicted and I sometimes envy her ;-)

We did not have a TV when I was growing up, but we did listen to rebroadcasts of old time radio shows. I suppose there was a limited selection of episodes to replay, so repeats were common. Mom would laugh all the way through them while I rolled my eyes, as I'd heard them all before.

Forgetfullness is bliss?

[Phil Deakins]

For some things, forgetfulness can be bliss, yes. In other circumstances, it can be real pain though.

An example: A few weeks ago, I was sitting here at the computer when the phone rang. It was 7:30pm on a Monday. I play in two bowling leagues - Mondays and Wednesdays. They start at different times and on that day I was already turning the computer off in preparation for going, which would get me there in good time for the start at at 8pm. Unfortunately, my memory had switched the start times round and the league was already starting when I got the call - to ask where I was. They waited for me and all was well.

A really bad example: A few weeks ago (again), in the bowling alley, I was chatting with a young couple who I didn't know. I'd been chatting with them for about 5 minutes before I realised that the girl was my daughter! And it hadn't been many mnoths since I'd last seen her.

On the whole though, a poor memory can be quite useful, although that last example could be indicative of old-timer's disease